Universal Processing Technique for Protein Crystals Using Pulsed UV Laser

We demonstrated the laser processing of three types of soft protein crystals using a 193 nm deep-UV pulsed laser. In particular, high-solvent-content crystals, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) crystals, were successfully processed without causing significant damage. An unchanged resolution limit between pre- and post-processings in X-ray diffraction measurements showed that laser irradiation has little influence on crystallinity. These results reveal that the processing using a deep-UV laser is effective for various protein crystals and will be very useful in accelerating protein structural analysis.